Failings before death at immigration detention centre, inquest hears

Staff at an immigration detention centre failed to raise concerns about the health of a vulnerable epileptic man before he died, an inquest has heard.

French national Théophile Kaliviotis died on 27 October 2024 in custody at Brook House immigration removal centre in West Sussex.

Horsham Coroner’s Court heard on Tuesday that Mr Kaliviotis, 26, had a seizure and had missed taking his epilepsy medication on four occasions before he died. He had also had access to the drug spice before his death, the court heard.

Kirsten Heaven, solicitor for the family, told coroner Joseph Turner at a pre-inquest hearing that Mr Kaliviotis was “vulnerable and mentally unwell” and “arguably he is made more vulnerable and unwell because of his detention”.

She said that staff at Brook House, which is run by Serco for the Home Office, had “clearly” not complied with Rule 35 of the government’s detention centre guidance, which requires healthcare staff to escalate concerns to management if an individual’s health is being badly affected by their detention.

Ms Heaven added that it was “arguable that the adults at risk policy hasn’t been complied with at any point”. The policy balances the government’s need to detain people for removal with their vulnerabilities, such as physical or mental disability.

She argued that he wasn’t able to access the same medical care in detention that he could have had in the community, adding: “He is vulnerable, unwell, potentially has capacity issues, and there are illegal drugs floating around.”

Mr Turner said that the inquest would have to consider “what happened to him while in detention… including the medical care that he was or was not given”.

Mr Turner said that Mr Kaliviotis “had a seizure and he died” but said what caused him to have the seizure was so far unknown.

Mr Benjamin Seifert, representing the government, said that “the fact of Mr Kaliviotis’s detention couldn’t reasonably be argued to have contributed to his death”.

The full inquest into Mr Kaliviotis’s death is set to take place in October 2026.

Brook House, which is near Gatwick, is used as a detention centre for people whose asylum claims have been rejected, those whose claims are still being considered, and foreign nationals who have served a sentence in a UK prison.

The removal centre, which has the same levels of security as a category B prison, is operated by Serco on behalf of the Home Office and has space for around 500 detainees.

While most detainees are held at the site for just a few weeks, some can be there for over two years.

British tourist describes horror as violence erupts in Mexico

A British tourist left stranded in a Mexican village as violence swept across the country has described taking a frightening journey past blocked roads and burnt out cars in a bid to find his way to safety.

Andy Martin, 33, from London was staying in a cabin in El Estuche, just outside of Tapalpa in the western state of Jalisco when Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as El Mencho was killed in a security operation to arrest him.

The death of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation (CJNG) drug cartel sparked a wave of retaliatory violence across the nation, with roads in 20 Mexican states blocked by burning cars, sending plumes of smoke into the air.

Residents in Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city and Jalisco’s capital, were forced to shelter indoors, while schools in several states cancelled classes on Monday.

Mr Martin had been staying with his friend from Guadalajara and had been taking a break in the cabin for the weekend, which was around two hours’ drive away. They had enjoyed a relaxing evening with a barbecue, but then on Sunday morning all they could hear was army helicopters.

Unable to travel safely, he decided to stay an extra night.

“It was super quiet in the whole area around Tapalpa, and we just spent the day in this beautiful cabin, there wasn’t really much else you could do,” he told the Independent. “When it got dark, it suddenly got a bit scary because we were in the middle of nowhere. Apart from the helicopters it was strangely calm.”

The wave of violent attacks were launched by the CJNG on Sunday. The operation to capture El Mencho and the violence which followed killed more than 70 people, the BBC reported.

Puerto Vallarta, a beach resort on Mexico’s Pacific coast, was one town to be anichit by the blockades. During the unrest 23 prisoners escaped after armed men rammed one of the prison gates with a car.

After staying an extra night in the cabin, Mr Martin journeyed into nearby Los Espinos to find out where it would be safe to travel to. Roads were closed and shops were already running low on food with no eggs or cheese.

“We didn’t know what roads were blocked or set on fire,” he explained and described a “controlled panic” and anxiety among other people staying in the cabins who had all been caught off guard by the unrest.

He grouped together with others staying in the area and left Los Espinos at 1.30pm for Guadalajara as a “mini convoy” leaving his belongings behind and only carrying a bag containing his passport and a phone charger.

“I said to my friend what is the worst case scenario, they take the car and we have to find another way. So we just packed a little rucksack each with a passport and a phone charger. If the worst happens we just need to get out of the car and you grab that,” Mr Martin said.

“I didn’t hear a single car pass the cabin but then from midday everybody was leaving,” he added.

The roads became jammed with traffic and passers by warned them of closed roads ahead, fallen trees, burnt out buses.

“Coming into Guadalajara there were still bits of the road on fire. There was the army in lots of places still just clearing up,” he recalled.

He added that his friend “felt so much better” when they headed out of Los Espinos and “got to that first blockade that had been cleared and saw the army.”

Reform’s pension plan ‘could lead to higher council tax bills’

Reform’s flagship plans to force multibillion pound local government pension funds to invest in the UK risks backfiring and pushing up council tax bills, experts have warned.

Nigel Farage’s party wants to merge the schemes to create a single British Sovereign Wealth Fund of up to £575bn.

Richard Tice, the party’s business spokesman, set out a vision of a “fund patriotically backing British companies, buying and promoting British product… (with a) strategic UK growth mandate backing Britain all the way.”

Across England and Wales there are 86 local government pension funds, with money paid in mainly by council workers, and Mr Tice said the move could be an “absolute game changer”.

“This could be one of our greatest legacies that Reform essentially brings to the United Kingdom. It could drive prosperity, it could drive growth,” he said in a speech in Birmingham.

But James Alexander, CEO of UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF) said: “Proposals to force pension schemes to invest in the UK run the risk of distorting markets and creating asset bubbles.

“They could also lead to lower returns for savers, at a time when shortfalls in retirement pots have left a whole generation facing a later-life income crisis.”

Tom Selby, director of public policy at investment platform AJ Bell, said Labour was already looking to harness assets held in local authority pensions to drive investment in ‘UK plc’, but had stopped short of mandating what the schemes invest in.

“By the sounds of it Tice is intent on bringing mandation back on the table… That is clearly appealing for any politician scrabbling for ways to drive long-term economic growth but raises questions about the risks being taken with other people’s money,” he said.

He added: “Ultimately these schemes need to have enough assets to pay members’ pensions and if the strategy goes wrong, it will be the members who are left paying the price.”

Pensions expert and former pensions minister Steve Webb told the Independent that council taxpayers could also be left on the hook. “The first question you’ve got to ask is, why wouldn’t these pension schemes be doing this anyway? And they’ve obviously decided they don’t think it’s in the members’ best interests,” he said.

He also warned that with defined benefit pensions, as many local government pensions are: “The amount you have to pay out doesn’t change. You’ve still got to pay the pensions you’ve promised to pay, but you’ve got less money coming in because you’ve lost returns… So somebody has to pay fill the gap.

“Well, who is the employer here? It’s councils. Where do councils get money from? Well, they’re not going to get money from central government to fill the gap – so it’s going to come from Council taxpayers. Basically, the risk is that what this will do is put council tax bills up,” Mr Webb, who is now a partner with pensions consultrants LCP, said.

Mr Tice has suggested new employees of councils should also be told that they have to join a new defined contribution scheme instead.

But Mr Webb cautioned that there was “no such thing as a free lunch” and it was already hard to recruit for many council jobs, leaving the possibility that if pensions were made less generous local authorities would have to offer to pay staff more upfront to fill positions. Reform suggests the new fund would help the national interest by investing in areas such as defence, steel and energy.

Savannah Guthrie offers up to $1 million for return of missing mother

A tearful Savannah Guthrie offered up to $1 million for information leading to the recovery of her mother, Nancy Guthrie, who was abducted from her home three weeks ago.

“It is day 24 since our mom was taken in the dark of night from her bed, and every hour and minute and second, and every long night has been agony since then, of worrying about her and fearing about her, aching for her and most of all just missing her,” the Today show host said in a video shared Tuesday morning to her Instagram account.

“We know that millions of you have been praying — so many people — have been praying, of every faith and no faith at all. And we feel those prayers,” she said. “Please keep praying without ceasing.”

“We still believe in a miracle. We still believe she can come home,” she added.

Savannah, 54, acknowledged the possibility that her 84-year-old mom may no longer be alive.

“But we need to know where she is. We need her to come home. For that reason, we are offering a family reward of up to $1 million for any information that leads us to her recovery,” she said.

“Someone out there knows something that can bring her home,” she added.

Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in the Catalina Foothills outside of Tucson, Arizona, in the early hours of February 1. Authorities believe she was taken against her will.

Her disappearance sparked a massive search involving state and federal law enforcement agencies. Authorities said Nancy Guthrie relies on daily medication, and there could be “fatal” consequences if she does not take it.

Police also flagged her health issues upon her disappearance, according to a 911 dispatch audio. “Nancy has high blood pressure, a pacemaker and cardiac issues,” the dispatcher said.

The FBI released doorbell camera images February 10 showing a suspect wearing a ski mask, gloves and backpack standing at Nancy Guthrie’s front door on the morning of her disappearance but no one has been arrested.

Reports this week, from ABC News and CNN, now suggest the suspected kidnapper may have been at her door on another day before the alleged abduction. It was unclear which day the suspect may have been at the home.

In a statement shared with The Independent Monday night, Pima County Sheriff’s Department said: “We are aware that doorbell images released earlier in the investigation depict a suspect in different stages of attire, including with and without a backpack.

“There is no date or time stamp associated with these images. Therefore, any suggestion that the photographs were taken on different days is purely speculative.”

Authorities are still working to analyze evidence from Nancy Guthrie’s home. The sheriff’s department said DNA from a pair of gloves found two miles from the home “did not trigger a match” in the FBI’s national database and “did not match DNA found at the property.”

The new video comes over a week after Savannah Guthrie’s last video begging for her mother’s kidnapper to bring her home. She and her family have also offered to pay for her mother’s safe return, following reports of ransom notes that are yet to be verified by police.

In the previous post, shared February 15, the TV anchor spoke directly to her mother’s suspected kidnapper: “I wanted to say to whoever has her, or knows where she is, that it’s never too late. It is never too late to do the right thing.”

Volunteers have been searching for Nancy Guthrie in the Arizona desert surrounding her home, despite authorities urging them to leave the work to the professionals.

“Per the Sheriff, they were asked to please give investigators the space they need to do their work,” the sheriff’s department said Saturday. “We appreciate their concern, and we all want to find Nancy, but this work is best left to professionals.”

Kyiv denies ‘absurd’ claim by Moscow that it is building nuclear weapon with Europe

Ukraine has dismissed Russian claims that Kyiv was trying to obtain nuclear weapons with the help of Britain and France as “absurd”.

“Russian officials, known for their impressive record of lies, are once again trying to fabricate the old ‘dirty bomb’ nonsense,” Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, told Reuters.

Earlier, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), accused Britain and France of preparing to secretly supply Ukraine with nuclear weapons parts and technology, without providing evidence.

A British government spokesperson said the claim was unfounded.

“For the record: Ukraine has already denied such absurd Russian claims many times before, and we officially deny them again now,” Mr Tykhyi said. “We urge the international community to reject and condemn Russia’s dirty information bombs.”

It comes as Ukraine marks the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. In a meeting of the coalition of the willing on Tuesday, French president Emmanuel Macron said that he is “very sceptical” that ongoing talks to end the war in Ukraine will lead to an agreement.

‘I swapped supplements for LaVita – here’s what I learned’

If you’ve ever experienced “pill fatigue”, you’re not alone. Every day we’re bombarded with ads for capsules, gummies and vitamin pills. But once we’ve bought them, it’s often unclear whether they’re safe to take alongside other supplements – or whether they even work effectively without being paired with something else.

The wellness industry frequently glorifies having a personalised supplement “stack”, or borrowing a fitness expert’s recommended routine. In reality, bottles of pills tend to clutter up our cabinets, and most of us don’t stick with influencer-approved protocols for long.

Experts consistently tell us that a whole-food diet is the best way to get vital nutrients into the body, rather than relying on pills. But no matter how well-intentioned you are, there are days when you simply can’t hit your nutrition goals. Many people struggle to eat 30 plants a week, and on a daily basis we’re often busy or eating on the go.

When our nutrient intake is inconsistent, it can affect how effectively we absorb essential vitamins and minerals. Certain minerals help enzymes function properly, while vitamins often work in tandem to regulate metabolic pathways – meaning we need balance, not excess, to feel our best.

According to the most recent national dietary data in the UK, only a third of adults eat the recommended five to seven portions of fruit and vegetables a day. The figures are even lower for children, who can be notoriously fussy eaters.

I decided to try a liquid concentrate that promises to eliminate the all-too-familiar problem of too many pills and not enough time – or willpower – to eat perfectly. LaVita is a product that aims to replace multiple supplements with a single, science-backed daily drink derived from whole foods. It sounds almost too good to be true – but could it really replace my carefully planned “stack”?

LaVita’s founder, former athlete Gerd Truntschka, explained that he stopped believing more pills equalled better health once he began considering how nutrients work in combination, and how staying close to the original food source can improve absorption. He set out to create an all-in-one liquid that mimics the natural matrix of whole foods.

The liquid contains more than 70 plant-based ingredients. It’s a living concentrate that includes enzymes, omega-3s and trace elements, designed for optimal bioavailability – something many pills struggle to offer.

The first thing I noticed about LaVita was the glass bottle. I try to avoid plastic packaging where possible, and in an increasingly toxic world – where everything seems to be served in plastic or bulked out with preservatives and fillers – it was refreshing. The ingredients list also looked promising.

I popped it in the fridge before my first taste test. Once chilled, I poured a tablespoon of the liquid into a glass of filtered water and stirred. It blended well, but even better with the small electric whisk I usually use for greens powders and electrolytes.

The taste was surprisingly pleasant. With so many ingredients, I expected something far more challenging, but there was nothing offensive about it – likely because it’s 70 per cent fruit juice, alongside 18 per cent vegetable juice and five per cent herbal extracts. The rest is made up of oils and trace minerals. Compared to swallowing 10 or more pills a day, it felt like a win.

Ingredients that don’t usually feature in everyday diets – such as rosehips, milk thistle, fennel and sea buckthorn – bring some of the more unusual, bitter flavours. While these can be an acquired taste, modern diets are severely lacking in bitter foods, so it was encouraging to see them included, especially given their benefits for digestion and gut health.

After a few days, the mental relief of simplifying a complex health routine into one daily drink was surprisingly rewarding. For the purposes of the trial, I stopped taking supplements containing iron, vitamins C, A, D, B6 and B12, folic acid, copper, selenium and zinc, as LaVita contains all of these in recommended doses. I normally take them in various combinations to support energy, immunity, brain health, and hair, skin and nails, alongside a healthy diet.

I also appreciated that LaVita is free from preservatives and additives. I’m selective about supplements because many contain bulking agents and preservatives that aren’t great for gut health over time.

Liquid supplements are often praised for better bioavailability, and there’s truth to this. Because they’re already dissolved, the body doesn’t need to break them down in the same way, meaning nutrients can enter the system more efficiently. They can also be gentler on the stomach. LaVita is also vegan, lactose-free and gluten-free.

I was curious about the inclusion of cold-pressed oils and learned that they help the body absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as D, E and K more effectively. I also found that taking the drink with breakfast worked best for me. While you can have it on an empty stomach, I prefer not to take anything containing green tea or B vitamins without food.

Throughout the testing period, the drink was easy to incorporate and enjoyable to consume. I didn’t experience any dip in energy and, reassuringly, noticed no negative changes to my skin – something I’d been quietly concerned about after ditching my usual supplements.

Each bottle contains 50 servings, meaning it lasts almost two months when taken daily. While I still made an effort to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, it was comforting to know that on days when a healthy breakfast was replaced by pastries, or dinner turned into pizza, I was still getting a broad spectrum of plant-based nutrients.

I’ll admit, I initially thought this liquid superdrink might be too good to be true. But the pros far outweighed the cons, and I was impressed by the overall experience. Anyone accustomed to regular juice or squash might find the taste slightly bitter at first – largely due to the lack of added sugar – but the ingredient quality more than makes up for it.

I was pleased with my skin, my energy levels, and the fact that I managed to avoid the cold that was circulating the office while testing LaVita, which hopefully suggests my immune system approved too.

While it’s not a replacement for a healthy diet, as a supplement swap LaVita ticks a lot of boxes: thoughtful packaging, strong ingredient sourcing, and a genuinely easier way to support nutrition. I can see it being a particularly helpful option for busy parents, fussy teens, older adults, and anyone who struggles to eat 30 plants a week – or swallow tablets at all.

Ready to simplify your supplements? Make the switch to LaVita today

Chelsea legend in court over ban on using sun terrace at £3m home

Premier League-winning former Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini is locked in a court fight after being banned from using a sun terrace outside his £3m London home.

Mr Cudicini, who made 216 appearances for Chelsea between 1999 and 2009, is being sued by Haya Property Ltd, the owners of the freehold on his multimillion-pound Kensington mews house, in a row that the 52-year-old says started when he complained about the company installing noisy air-con units near his bedroom window.

The house, which the Blues legend bought for £1.75m in 2006 while at the peak of his Premier League career, is located just yards from Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall and under two miles from Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge home, where he works as head of talent at the club’s “pathway programme”.

Milan-born Mr Cudicini, who was part of the Chelsea squad during the 2004-05 season when they won their first Premier League title, has been taken to court over claims he breached the lease terms for his home in Jay Mews, South Kensington, by converting a rear section of flat roof into a sun terrace.

The freeholder claims his use of the compact terrace space – which, according to planning records, is less than two metres long and wide – is “a trespass and/or breach of covenant”.

However, the former football star’s lawyers insist his adaptation of the terrace, which is accessed off the first-floor lounge, is in line with planning permission granted by the City of Westminster for works at the house before he moved in.

Mr Cudicini started his professional career at Serie A side AC Milan in 1992, but struggled to break into the first team and, after a stint at Lazio, moved to Chelsea in 1999. He became the club’s number one goalkeeper and was voted Chelsea’s player of the year for the 2001-02 season, before winning the Premier League as an understudy to Petr Cech under Jose Mourinho in 2005 and 2006. Mr Cudicini later moved to Tottenham Hotspur in 2009 and played his final professional games at Los Angeles Galaxy in 2013, before hanging up his boots.

Mr Cudicini first returned to Chelsea as a club ambassador and assistant to the new first-team boss Antonio Conte in 2016, and is now the club’s head of talent and pathway programme.

During a short pre-trial hearing last week, the former footballer’s barrister, Mark Warwick KC, said is client had embarked on a refurb project after buying the property, which is now valued online at over £3m, including opening up the terrace.

The court heard that Mr Cudicini purchased the property on 30 June 2006, “with the benefit of the terrace permission” for £1.75m. His barrister told Judge Olivia-Faith Dobbie, at Central London County Court, that in about 2007 to 2008, his client had work to the house “carried out in accordance with the terrace permission, creating a terrace”.

“The work was carried out openly and with the knowledge and/or consent of the previous landlords,” Mr Warwick KC, said, adding that thereafter, Mr Cudicini has “openly used the terrace as part of the house”.

According to council documents, Mr Cudicini also went on to secure planning permission to create a new basement beneath the mews, to include an en-suite guest room and TV/play room.

Mr Cudicini – whose 999-year lease on the house is held at a rate of “one red rose per annum if demanded” – now faces claims of trespass and breach of the lease relating to the terrace.

Haya Property is also seeking an injunction, barring the alleged misuse of the terrace, plus compensation of up to £25,000.

Mr Cudicini, while maintaining the claim against him has no legal basis, suggests it was triggered by his landlords’ overreaction to him complaining about them placing noisy air-con units near his bedroom.

His KC described the breach allegation as “unjustified” and argued: “Further and in any event, the allegation was their unjustified riposte to Mr Cudicini’s earlier complaint to the City of Westminster that Haya Property had wrongly placed three noisy air conditioning units next to his master bedroom.”

He told the judge that the 2006 permission granted to a previous owner allowed for the “the replacement of a rear first floor window with French doors – and use of flat roof and lightwell as a terrace”.

The former goalie further claims that the landlords in place before Haya Property took over the freehold in 2015 were given formal notice of the terrace planning application and also agreed to it.

In court, Mr Cudicini’s barrister said the former keeper has “personal knowledge” of the history of his house from the date of purchase in 2006 and has carried out further enquiries since the case was launched against him, which enabled him to put together a “complete defence”.

Mr Warwick KC said Haya Property acquired the freehold in November 2015 “by a transfer made between the previous freeholders and Haya Properties,” by which Haya was transferred part of the freehold title.

The case ended up in court before Judge Dobbie in a five-minute pre-trial hearing dealing with costs budgets for the forthcoming trial whose date has yet to be fixed.

Doomsday AI report goes viral after warning about human intelligence

A new article offering an apocalyptic vision of humanity’s future with artificial intelligence has gone viral and caused stock prices to tumble in major tech and financial firms.

“The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis,” published Sunday by Citrini Research, strikes a doomsday tone about the looming threat of AI to white-collar work, and what could potentially lead to a “global intelligence crisis.”

“For the entirety of modern economic history, human intelligence has been the scarce input,” wrote Citrini Research in the report. “We are now experiencing the unwind of that premium.”

It continued: “Machine intelligence is now a competent and rapidly improving substitute for human intelligence across a growing range of tasks. The financial system, optimized over decades for a world of scarce human minds, is repricing. That repricing is painful, disorderly, and far from complete.”

Citrini Research was founded by James van Geelen, who co-authored the post with Alap Shah, known for running AI-focused investment fund, Lotus Technology Management. The small research firm, which started in 2023, is one of the top finance blogs on Substack, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The authors noted the article was not a prediction, but a hypothetical situation as if it were June 2028, and posed the question of whether “our AI bullishness continues to be right…and what if that’s actually bearish?”

Despite the cautionary note, the article spread like wildfire Monday. Shares in software firms that utilize AI – Datadog, CrowdStrike and Zscaler – each dropped more than 9 percent.

IBM, which has an integrated AI development studio Watsonx, also saw its stock drop 13 percent, in its worst one-day performance since 2000.

American Express, KKR and Blackstone, all mentioned in the Citrini post, also fell, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Share in DoorDash fell 6.6 percent Monday after the article called the delivery app a “poster child” for how new AI technology would disrupt businesses that profit from so-called “interpersonal friction.”

Citrini suggested that in the future, AI agents would help drivers and customers navigate food deliveries at a much lower cost.

DoorDash co-founder Andy Fang responded to the report by saying that that he believes “agentic commerce will be transformative to the industry” – referencing shopping powered by AI agents acting on customers’ behalf.

But with it, his company will need to evolve in ways to work for both AI agents and customers. “The ground is shifting underneath our feet, and the industry is going to need to adapt to it,” he wrote on X.

AI has been driving global financial markets for the past couple of years, though experts have questioned whether its a stock market “bubble” due to overconfidence from investors. Bubbles are dangerous as prices become disconnected from the value of the companies, meaning they can suddenly collapse without warning.

The AI boom can be felt throughout industries, though some young people worry AI will take away entry level jobs. A 2025 report from think tank the Brookings Institution suggests AI adoption has led to employment and firm growth, but not widespread job loss.

The fears of AI disruption are “happening sooner than most folks anticipated,” Jordan Rizzuto, chief investment officer for investment strategy research firm GammaRoad Capital Partners, told the Journal. “Such is the nature of an accelerating technology.”

Global stocks were also lower on Monday due to fresh uncertainty over U.S. trade policy. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said he would increase his global tariff rate to 15 percent, after the Supreme Court ruled his sweeping global tariffs were unlawfully imposed.